izigame.me

Absolutely metal, I've had this one in my library for a bit (got the first game free from an unrelated discord giveaway, bought this one on release and am enjoying it with my Steam deck), I'm sort of taking this one slow. This is a sequel from the original Valfaris. My go-to custom keyboard configuration from Valfaris where I fired with the "zero" number-pad key, basically, is unusable here, which was a major bummer and makes my preferred playstyle, with this one, either my Steam Deck or with my plugable X-Box controller (I will go back and add-in what I did for the preceeding game on this review or for a review for the original Valfaris soon. If someone is viewing this within a
vacuum, seeing the only-available-keyboard-configurations for this game and then basing a playthrough on Valfaris *only* around those keysets may be worth it, for an easier transition, though I found my custom combination still to be the best. Effectively any keys can be configured for any actions with the first Valfaris game, Valfaris: Mecha Therion is bound to a selection of pre-set controls only).
My above comment regarding keybindings is about the only negative I can find with this game (although if later sections of this game become suddenly ridiculously-difficult, I may be sore from that) but nonetheless this is still a strong recommendation. At time of writing, I am about halfway through the game, playing on "Great Horned One" ("hard") difficulty. Valfaris: Mecha Therion has a great story but it's pretty subtle and there isn't much room to comment on it and the different personalities in-game without spoilers. The OST knocks it out of the park of course, great art, very good replayability with weapon variety and different in-level secrets. Some of the Steam achievements for this game would be a bear (would be difficult) to get, but that's nothing new with Steam games. The choice to reward currency-hoarding by causing it to bring out more-challenging-enemies (with good drops upon defeat) is a good risk-reward game design element, albeit not quite as unique or memorable as the blood-idol system in Valfaris.
But above all that, it's just cool. The crowning achievement of a normal Valfaris playthrough is (not a hidden achievement either), "Son of Valfaris." The natural turn-of-phrase that comes to mind is Superman's "Son of Krypton," and truly, this game and set of games earns its comparison. It adds richness to its genre in a similar way that the game Crying Suns gave me a deeper appreciation of some of the Dune books. It's worth playing and it's even worth blindly gifting to a friend on Steam, I believe (though admittedly, at time of review, I lean towards believing that the experience is richer if the games are played in-order).
Valfaris: Mecha Therion is a very inspired experience. I *highly* recommend this game.